UPS to Team Up With Local Retailers for Package Pick-Up

United Parcel Service, better known as UPS, is hoping that a number of small retailers can help them make it through the Christmas season this year without suffering a loss. Last year, the company didn’t do as well as they had hoped, and this year, they are unrolling a much larger version of their Access Point program that they had tested in a few cities.

The Access Point network allows them to drop packages intended for home delivery at a local business, so customers can pick them up there. They try to make home delivery, of course, but after one attempt, the package will be taken to the access point. Normally, they would make one to three attempts before taking it to a UPS warehouse, where customers could stand in line and pick up their package. But nobody likes doing that.

What’s more, home deliveries are expensive and time consuming, because densely populated areas tend not to be as conducive to the big brown trucks that UPS uses. Leaving their regular routes means drivers have to spend more time finding the place than it is sometimes worth.

The Access Point network might solve some of those problems, and for some of the 8,000 retailers, in 100 cities across the country, it might be a boon. Getting customers into the store could mean more sales, then or in the future, from customers who might not have visited in the first place. For some stores, this is already a reality.

Of course, it’s also inconvenient for the UPS customer, and maybe for the store as well. The stores aren’t making money off holding these packages, and if people come in to get them, they can distract form actual customers. If they have to wait too long they might decide the store isn’t worth visiting again, meaning that being in the Access Point network costs stores sales.

UPS will be waiting with baited breath, as will their investors, to see how the program works out over this holiday season.